Updated 20-Sep-2023
The WooCommerce team is introducing a huge amount of integrated functionality. WooCommerce must be considered a platform at this point (with WordPress as a much more generic, broader platform). Think of Windows and Office. Windows is a generic operating system and Office is a set of applications. While the analogies only go so far, WooCommerce itself is now a platform as integration with it adds value. In addition, many of the more functional applications show a lot of horizontal integration. There are now a large number of highly functional and interoperating applications in a variety of areas. Examples: - Follow-Up Email (FUE), now simply named Follow-Ups - An email management system (drip email, mailing lists, newsletters) (Follow-Up documentation) - Sensei - a Learning Management System (LMS), aka Courseware - WooCommerce Memberships - Time and membership level-based access to content, including drip-feed content, groups, access control, and recurring subscriptions - Note also the alternative Groups for Woocommerce, which enables selling group memberships (without recurring subscriptions) - WooCommerce Bookings for time-based rental/use - WooCommerce Subscriptions, for recurring and time-based services While several of these just appear to be extensions of ecommerce, there is a lot of data and organizational knowledge tied up in much of these, beyond inventory, pricing and transactions. The email marketing niche is really a brilliant approach as this is a very popular and necessary niche populated by expensive SAAS/Cloud service providers (MailChimp, etc.). The LMS courseware is equally a fascinating market, and has unique properties to a Memberships niche, which is not only about members but content management. Bookings with the focus on time-based services (from classes to hotels), as well as rentals (e.g., booking a car rental), is a very complex system, as anyone who has tried to get a reservation system up online that did the job (without paying a fortune), can attest. Finally, full support of subscriptions (time based, recurring, etc.) is widely in demand. Further integration among and between these fairly important areas of confluence between marketing, content, and ecommerce.
Third Party WooCommerce Integrations / Extensions
WooCommerce can't do everything (nor should it) so there are a few platform areas that are important but not yet under the sway of the Woo Team.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
Actuality Extensions has a very compelling CRM extension to WooCommerce. Though to be honest having something that extends user fields, pages, and reports is likely enough, and could be customized much easier, especially when combined with Follow-Up Email.
Events Calendar and Event Tickets
The Events Calendar Pro and Event Tickets Plus by ModernTribe are best in class for managing calendars, events, and ticketing.
Affiliates - A Crowded Field
Affiliates are still an area where there is lots of healthy competition. I still like my creaky old WP Affiliate Platform, it works and it's bulletproof (and also widely integrated). Unfortunately its getting a bit moldy, and the integration and functionality is not as awesome as competitors. For example, AffiliatesWP by the Easy Digital Downloads guys, has a slew of AffiliateWP Pro Add-ons including Direct Link Tracking which basically removes the whole issue of affiliate codes. Simple, sweet, and something the Tips-and-Tricks folks can't even determine how much it would cost to develop for the WP Affiliate System (when asked).
Multi-currency, Multi-paypal accounts
Though WooCommerce has many plugins, Aelia has filled a niche regarding multi-currency/multi-account paypal processing. This plugin is at base a multi-currency extension, but itself can be extended for the use of multiple accounts (determined by which currency is chosen). This is great if you want to avoid both cross-border charges (and have paypal accounts in multiple countries) and currency conversion charges. I would still like to have different paypal accounts based on the amount being sold. That way use of a micropayments-enabled paypal would help if a > $5 USD charge were being made.